BREAKING NEWS ~ TIME reporter Cooper agrees to testify before grand jury, Miller balks News
BREAKING NEWS ~ TIME reporter Cooper agrees to testify before grand jury, Miller balks

[JURIST] AP is reporting that TIME magazine reporter Matthew Cooper has agreed to comply with government demands to testify before a grand jury [JURIST report] investigating the identity leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame [Wikipedia profile]. TIME previously turned over Cooper's notes [JURIST report]. Cooper told the judge presiding in his case Wednesday that he had received a direct communication from his source giving him permission to testify about the source's identity. AP has more.

2:57 PM ET – In a related development, AP is reporting that New York Times reporter Judith Miller has refused to reveal her source to the same grand jury.

THIS DAY @ LAW

No lynchings reported in US for first time

On December 30, 1952, the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year of no lynchings of African Americans in the United States in the 71 years it had kept records. Learn more about lynching and listen to Billie Holiday's jazz recording of the 1938 protest song Strange Fruit.

USSR established

On December 30, 1922, representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucus approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During World War II, the USSR would also annex Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. Learn more about the history of the USSR from the BBC.